


The Torchwood Symposium of Temporal Displacement Protocols

by Kelkat9



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 03:40:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7151612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelkat9/pseuds/Kelkat9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rose Tyler finds herself at a work required seminar with her nemesis and top govenrment expert on Temporal Anomalies, Dr. James Smyth, she knows her day couldn't get worse.  Until it did.  And it was up to her Dr. Smyth to save everyone.  Suddenly nemesis started sounding a lot more like date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Torchwood Symposium of Temporal Displacement Protocols

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fic from tumbler - enemies to lovers trope.

  
She should have known _he_ would be at the Torchwood Symposium of Temporal Displacement Protocols. Arrogant, brilliant and a complete nutter, Dr. James Smyth had as many opinions as he did degrees.

Rose sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. He was also the government expert on the present temporal anomaly problem. The anomalies had been popping up all over London for the past year. It was Torchwood Agent Rose Tyler’s job to quarantine the area; assess the damage; help the victims; and devise a neutralization plan. And every single plan she made was overridden by Dr. Smyth.

She wondered if the pin stripe suit wearing doctor took pleasure in making her look like rubbish to her superiors. If she quarantined a block, he said it was excessive usually with some snide comment about overzealous agents. If she limited her scene to a building, he’d insist on expanding it. Nothing she did was acceptable. And he garnered all the credit for keeping London safe.

It wasn’t fair. Not that she wanted a medal or to be in the spotlight. But it would be nice if she was recognized every once and a while. And she was tired of worrying if her job was on the line. She’d received one reprimand about an incident at the British Museum where she quarantined an entire block. The evacuation had gone smoothly until Dr. Smyth and his groupies showed up. She smirked at that. He really did have groupies.

Usually they were young women following him around, taking notes and doing god only knows what. She’d heard rumours about his flirtations and strange parties at the observatory. Everyone loved him. At least that was what her co-workers at Torchwood said. Even her boss and best mate, Jake, wasn’t immune. She’d caught him fixing his hair before a meeting he had with the Director and Dr. Smyth. And she had to admit, if the annoying doctor wasn’t such an arrogant prat, she might enjoy how his tight trousers displayed that very fine arse of his.

And now they were both speakers at the same event. She checked the schedule. A groan rumbled in her chest. Her lecture was next, after his. And she was required to attend his session. She slapped the program down on her lap and squeezed her eyes shut. If there was one thing everyone knew about the loquacious Dr. Smyth, it was his uncanny ability to ramble on with not a care in the world for time limits or schedules. The irony of their temporal anomaly’s specialist lack of timeliness was not lost on her or anyone at Torchwood.

She supposed that’s why she was there. No one else wanted to be stuck listening to him go on and on about theoretical quantum clusters. There was no getting around it. She was doomed to an afternoon of boredom.

She settled herself into her seat and scanned the hand-out material. The lecture hall was filling up with a variety of attendees. Rose wiggled in her seat and mentally steeled herself. Her final thought before he walked up to the podium was relief. At least she wore a comfortable pantsuit and tucked a few power bars in her pockets. Somehow she thought she’d need them.

An hour and a half later during an off topic ramble about bananas, Tescos and the latest temporal rift, her boredom came to an abrupt end. Hairs on her arms stood on end and she felt a familiar throbbing pain in her head.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered and reached for her mobile which, of course, couldn’t get a signal.

Pressure built up in the room pressing inward against her chest. The chandeliers and recessed lights flickered.

She’d been around enough anomalies to know the signs and shot up out of her seat. She met the startled brown eyed gaze of her nemesis. He looked away scanning the crowd.

“Uh Agent Tyler!” he said in a high pitched voice. “Did you have something to add?” His eye brows stretched up toward his tousled brown hair.

“Yeah, I do,” Rose said and nodded her head. “We’ve got one of your anomalies right here and it might be nice if we evacuate everyone.”

He nodded his head and adjusted his glasses. “Right, evacuate.” He wrinkled his nose. “I know you’re Torchwood and their top agent, but are you sure?” He cocked his head to the side. “Cause I invented the detection system and I don’t recall hearing--”

At that moment air raid sirens sounded.

“Ah.” Dr. Smyth nodded. “That would be it so I suppose we should, you know run!”

Lights exploded over head raining glass down on the shouting attendees. Tables and chairs tipped over in the fray as the crowd, scrambled to escape. Rose tried to help direct people to the exits but it was chaos. The anomaly formed in the centre of the room, a vortex of wind whipping and tearing at those fleeing. Chairs lifted up and hurtled across the room. The building groaned and dust from the crumbling ceiling choked Rose’s lungs.

She tried her mobile again with no success. Help wouldn’t be there in time. She had to clear and contain the area. Her voice cracked amidst her coughs as she shouted orders. Screaming people and flying debris mixed with the high pitched noise typical of anomalies. She glimpsed Dr. Smyth through the chaos.

He stood with his jaw slack, staring at the anomaly forming in a swirling mass of debris and electrical charges flashing around it like lightening. It ripped through the building from floor to ceiling.

“Shit,” Rose muttered. It figured he’d just stand there like muppet while the bloody thing ripped him to atoms or sent him to god knows where in time.

She wrapped and arm around her face and struggled against the wind and air pressure slowly making her way towards him. Muscles strained and her skin stung from dirt and crumbled debris blasting against her. But she kept going. This was her job: to protect people even if it was the one person who annoyed the shit out of her.

A chair careened into her back and she fell to her knees crawling toward where he stood rooted to the ground.

“Doctor Smyth!” she shouted.

“Do you see it, Agent Tyler?” He asked as he was knocked to the deck of the stage by a flying platter. He tumbled off and landed next to her.

“Ow.” He winced and rubbed his head.

“Have you lost it?” Rose shouted at him. “Why didn’t you evacuate?”

He crawled over to her and looked over his shoulder at the anomaly roaring into existence.

“I’ve never seen one before. It’s brilliant – totally more than I ever expected. I mean I’ve seen recordings but nothing--”

“Yeah, I get it. You’re impressed. Time to leave,” Rose grabbed his shoulder and shoved him to move.

The pressure increased with an eerie howling that Rose felt straight through her body raising chills along her spine. Suction pulled at her. Shards of broken glass cut through her clothing as both she and Dr. Smyth slid backwards across the floor toward the anomaly.

Every mission, her stomach clenched. The rush of adrenaline was familiar. But this was the first time fear clenched her heart. Neither she nor her annoying expert could escape the pull of the anomaly. Somehow as they fought against the howling forces ripping at them, her hand clasped his.

She looked into the eyes of the man she often blamed for work related backlash. Reflected back was knowledge and fear. He knew what was happening; and what would happen if they were sucked into the hell destroying the building around them. No one knew better than him what this was and what it could do. He was the best chance to save their city and possibly the world. She wouldn’t let him die.

She tightened her grip and dug her heels into the torn and dirt encrusted carpet. Eyes squeezed tight, she focused on stopping them and pulled him close to her. Rolling them to the side over and over again, they thudded into a chunk of the building that had tumbled inward.

With that as leverage, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight.

“Rose,” he coughed her name. “I’m sorry.”

She opened one eye. “You’re not giving up. You’re gonna live,” she said, gritting her teeth, even as the howling and groaning thrummed in her ears until she was sure felt a trickle of blood.

An explosion rocked the building, the ground trembled and the walls came tumbling down. Another slab of concrete landed on the other side of them. The concussion was familiar. Torchwood arrived with one of the only methods they had to fight a temporal anomaly spinning out of control. And it was James Smyth’s invention.

A metal bolt impaled into her thigh. Wrenching, burning pain wracked through her and she lost her leverage to hold them steady. There was no choice.

“Save them,” she croaked before letting him go, his fingertips grasping for her as she slid away toward a hellish end listening to scream “Nooooooooo!”.

Needle like pain, stinging, burning, her chest so tight she couldn’t breath and then….silence. It was like the world stopped. She blinked and tried to assess what happened. Sunlight warmed her skin. And then she heard shouting. And screaming. No wait, it was her screaming. Oh that’s right she’d been beaten to a pulp and was bleeding with a bloody bolt in her leg.

“Tyler!”

She looked up to find Jake, hunched over her with medial techs assessing her.

“Dr. Smyth,” she said in a voice she didn’t’ even recognize. It was weak and thready.

“Yeah, we got him. A bit banged up but he was more worried about you.” Her leg stabilized thanks to the latest Torchwood tech with pain killers warming her to the core, she refused to be hauled out on a stretcher.

“Why do you have to be so stubborn?” Jake groused as he and another agent helped her up.

“I’ll be damned if I’m carried out like I’m useless.”

“No one would ever call you useless,” Jake assured her in a serious tone. “You saved lives today, Rose. If you hadn’t warned them--”

“Yeah, so much for our good doctor’s detection system,” Rose quipped.

“My quantum alarm worked just fine, Agent Tyler.” Rose looked over to find her now slightly tattered Dr. Smyth holding up better than her.

“Just not as well as you did,” he added in a soft tone and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “I think I owe you dinner.”

Maybe it was exhaustion playing with her head but her nemesis suddenly didn’t look so arrogant or intimidating. He looked like someone who went through hell with dirt caked in his gorgeous hair and rips in his previously pristine suit. But most of all, was the warmth in his eyes.

A giggle burst out. Did he just ask her out to dinner? Maybe she had fallen into the anomaly and she was hurled into some weird alternate dimension. But before she could ask him that, she fell forwards and was engulfed in blackness.

dwdwdwdwdw

She’d awakened in the hospital with her mother and father arguing about her choice of career. Given her father was the Director of Torchwood, the argument was loud and personal. Until they realized she was awake.

She agreed to spend some time at home with her family. Her mother tried to convince her to change jobs and maybe date someone nice and safe. Two days later, she escaped to the peace and quiet of her flat. Or maybe it was to the boredom of her flat. It was too quiet.

Jake was no help when she rang him up demanding to know what was happening. His only response was they’d handled it and now she was to rest and recover. This was otherwise known as sick leave. She hated it. It was hell to someone used to being on the move and busy all day.

Her second night home, there was a knock on her door. This was odd given it was a secure building and no one got in without a resident buzzing theme in. She hobbled to the door, her leg still in a Torchwood ultra-teched out cast.

Biting her lip she contemplated the odds of whether or not this was a criminal; and her ability to defend herself.

“Agent Tyler?”

The voice was familiar. In fact, it was the last voice she’d heard before spectacularly losing consciousness.

Door unlocked, the infamous and Dr. Smyth stood before her with a huge grin on his face.

“I believe I owe you dinner.” He held up a bag and her mouth watered at the scent of fried fish.

He was in her flat before she could invite him and making himself at home. Coat off and sleeves rolled up, he went straight to the kitchen, pulled out dishes and silverware and laid out a spread on the table. She should be annoyed at how he barged in. But he brought food and not just the bland and boring get well food everyone else had brought.

“You didn’t have to do this,” she said slowly as her stomach rumbled at the sight of fish, chips and oh my god did he bring brownies? He just stepped up in her estimation.

“Yes I did and especially after you--” He nervously scratched the back of his neck. “Well, you save me.”

“It’s my job.” It was an automatic answer.

“And one you do brilliantly.”

Memories from that day clicked into place. “You knew who I was,” she said slowly. “I mean you said my name before--”

“How could I not know you? Agent Rose Tyler, the best of the best. Everything you do has helped my work.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what to say to him praising her. So she on dinner. One bite into a crispy chip and she groaned before licking her salty fingers. “This is brilliant. Thank you.”

“Welll, I heard it was your favourite.” There was a twinkle in his eyes as he watched her eat.

“You asked around?” she asked after biting into another chip.

He grinned and dug into his own meal. “Well I always wanted to meet you but never could figure out how to make it…you know happen. Although you fainting straight into my arms… I mean, it was a brilliant if not slightly concerning way to catch my attention. Of course you didn’t have to go to such extremes.” His cheeks flushed and he shoved a bottle of ale at her and started babbling about their work and how maybe they could work together.

Big brown puppy dog eyes followed and she was lost. She wasn’t sure how it happened that she fell under his spell. Maybe it was clinging to each other as the world went to hell around them. Or the look in his eyes.

Perhaps it was the chips and compliments he lavished her with all night. She wasn’t sure. All she did know was that they fell asleep on her sofa that night watching bad science fiction movies and the next morning he brought her tea and pastries. Suddenly, he wasn’t such a villain or the pompous arse she thought. In fact, he was kind, passionate and just as brilliant as she thought.

Somehow her life intertwined with his seamlessly. He still sometimes annoyed her. But more often, she found herself smiling, laughing and snogging her way in and out of trouble with him at her side. And when he started one of his annoying babbles, her co-workers turned to her. She knew just the cure. Good thing her office at Torchwood had sound proof walls!

 


End file.
